1892.
Aug. 4
(No 2)
Concord, Massachusetts.
Mass.
Concord.. between its hind legs precisely like a dog
digging at a Woodchuck's hole.
  Next it returned to the spider running perfectly straight
to the spot through the grass and then resuming the
dragging until it had again reached the hole down which
it backed pulling the spider in after it, not without
difficulty. Reappearing at the entrance it came out, looked
about for a moment and then began shoveling sand into
the hole from a pile which had evidently been made
during the process of excavation and throwing it backwards
with the fore legs as just described.
  When the hole was filled to within about a quarter of an
inch of the surrounding surface it scattered the remaining
sand in every direction until not a trace of the original
pile remained. It then returned to the hole and standing
directly over it began biting [delete]with[/delete] the edges with its jaws
and shaking the earth thus loosened down into the hole.
After spending a few seconds in this way it would vibrate
its abdómen up and down and sideways with great rapidity
and with so much force that the whole body shook violently.
At first I thought it was depositing eggs but after watching
it for some time I concluded that it used its abdómen
as a beetle to tamp the earth firmly in place. It
continued this remarkable performance for fully fifteen
minutes the periods of biting and tamping alternating
with perfect regularity. When it finally ceased from
its labors and flew away the pit was filled perfectly
level with the surrounding surface, from which it
could be in no way distinguished.

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